spill over

English

Verb

spill over (third-person singular simple present spills over, present participle spilling over, simple past and past participle spilled over or spilt over)

1. to enter into another zone by way of accident or overcrowding; to overflow
2. (intransitive) (of an infectious disease) to spread from one species of animal to another and particularly to humans
3. (intransitive) (of a bad emotion, situation, etc.) to reach a climax

   undercurrents of popular discontent spilled over into outright revolt

   • 2022 June 29, Paul Stephen, “Network News: Strikes set to escalate as RMT issues rallying call”, in RAIL, number 960, page 6:

     That's the warning from RMT General Secretary Mick Lynch, who has predicted that industrial action could soon spill over into other sectors of the economy, following the failure of last-ditch talks to avert the largest rail strike since 1989.

   • 2023 October 8, Phil McNulty, “Arsenal 1-0 Manchester City”, in BBC Sport‎:

     There was indiscipline, too, from Kovacic, who was fortunate to only be shown a yellow card for a poor challenge on Odegaard yet still followed it up almost immediately with another on Rice.
     The indiscipline spilled over at the final whistle too as a clutch of City players including Haaland and Kyle Walker were involved in a heated exchange with a number of Arsenal's backroom staff.

References

• “spill over”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Anagrams

• overspill